Mum’s outrage over toddler's stolen plane seat

One mum has been left fuming after she was forced to hold her toddler in her lap for hours on end after his seat was given away by United Airlines.

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Shirley Yamauchi was travelling from Hawaii to Boston for work with her son Taizo, whom she had purchased a $1,270 seat for.

After boarding the second leg of her journey, Shirley was shocked when she was approached by a standby passenger – who had paid $100 for his ticket – claiming he was to sit in Taizo’s seat instead.

“I told him, I bought both of these seats,” she told KITV. “The flight attendant came by, shrugs and says, 'flight's full.'”

Shirley admits she didn’t feel safe doing so, but was scared to make a scene after recent incidents involving passenger violence on planes.

In April, footage of bloodied and bewildered passenger David Dao went viral when he was forcibly dragged off a United Airlines flight after he refused to give up his seat.

"I started remembering all those incidents with United on the news. The violence. Teeth getting knocked out. I'm Asian,” Shirley told Hawaii News Now. “I'm scared, and I felt uncomfortable. I didn't want those things to happen to me.”

United have since released a statement apologising for the incident, claiming Taizo’s boarding pass was incorrectly scanned.

“As a result, her son's seat appeared to not be checked in, and staff released his seat to another customer and Ms. Yamauchi held her son for the flight,” the statement read. “We deeply apologise to Ms. Yamauchi and her son for this experience.”

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